Crystal Wilder was born in Brooking, South Dakota, on 13 September 1967. “I had a wonderful childhood. My family were very close – real strict though. I was considered a rebel, you know, because I kinda did my own thing, even though it might hurt my parents. You know, drinking, partying, staying out late, sneaking around, staying overnight with the boyfriend. Which they never found out about. I was basically a good girl, but in their eyes, they were so strict, that I was considered a rebel. I just felt I had to take that freedom and just use it the way I wanted to. I was youngest of two. I have an older sister. Two years older.”

According to Crystal, as a teenager, “[I wasn’t] super outgoing. I had my close friends, and that was about it.” Nevertheless, she was a cheerleader in school, despite admitting, “I wasn’t really into sports. I was into swimming, but not basketball or anything like that.“ She eventually lost her virginity. “I was 19. A boyfriend that I had been dating – he did it to me. The first time I liked it. It was just the excitement of getting the first time over with that kind of overwhelmed me.”

After high school she did a number of dead-end jobs, before eventually posing for men’s magazines. Soon after she went on holiday with her husband to Nebraska, where, as a joke, she entered a wet t-shirt contest. She came first and walked off with $100. This was an enormous amount for her, so she decided to check out the her local strip clubs where she lived. According to Crystal, "Nothing nasty was happening there, and the girls were having a good time." She then adopted the stage name Scarlet O’Hara and began stripping full-time in Sioux Falls.

By her own admission she was an exhibitionist by nature. “I love dancing onstage. It really gets me horny knowing that all these guys are lusting after me.” "They think I am an ultimate fantasy. Some of them call me a superstar and come into the clubs for no other reason than to see me. It is the greatest feeling in the world, to be taken so seriously for something that most people don't see as legitimate. It makes everything worthwhile."

While touring the US club circuit she would often come across porn stars. Porn stars could make up to $20,000 a week on the dance circuit, and Crystal realized this was an opportunity to advance her career. “I met [porn actress] Ashlyn Gere on the dance circuit when I was in Florida, and she’s just such a wonderful person… Ashlyn told me about the X-rated business. I was really intrigued by it, so I went to World Modeling [agency] and got in… I just thought, you know, a nice person like this – there’s gotta be good people in the business, in which I’ve met so many really, really good people. And I thought, I’ll come out, I can try it, if I don’t like it I can always quit. But it’s
been a lot of fun.”

Crystal’s husband had no problem with her appearing in porn films, and her perfect body and enthusiastic performances in front of the camera meant that she soon became one of the top names in the industry. Within months she was starring alongside names such as Nikki Dial, Hyapatia Lee, Debi Diamond, Francesca Le and P.J. Sparxx, claiming: “The thing I like most about being an adult star is the sex. You get to have the hottest, nastiest sex you can imagine.”
Crystal would willingly take part in group or anal scenes, and was naturally bisexual. “Having a guy eat me [is my favorite sex act]. Why does that rate number one with me? Because I also like to eat women, so I know what it feels like, and I know how to give it. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Despite working with directors such as Paul Thomas and Bud Lee, her favorite film was Greg Dark’s ‘New Wave Hookers 3’ (1993), in which she had sex with Italian actor Rocco Siffredi. “It was the most intense fuck I’ve ever had in my life. It really was. He’s so full of passion. He looks deep into your eyes and you’re just his. I kinda melted. I don’t need to be fucked again after that!”

Crystal’s parents and friends back in South Dakota were shocked when they realized what she was doing for a living. “They know about it, but they don't acknowledge it. It is not really discussed, but they accept me because we are family and friends and we were prior to the porn. They realize I'm the same person… At first, it really did hurt my feelings, but being brought up in the Midwest, I understand that a lot of people are very closed-minded and it is something that is hard to overcome. As far as what I do, I know my parents look upon it as something totally unacceptable. I can understand them now because I have become a lot more understanding and non-judgmental... but I wish they could open their hearts and understand that I'm doing what I want to do and I'm not hurting anyone."

"It [the ostracism] hurts me a lot because I enjoy being around people and having close friends and they [regular women] just can't look at you in the same way once they know what you do. I guess I m just really afraid to get close to women who
are not in the industry because I don't like being judged and every time, when I am asked by a female what I do and I'm honest about it, that look on their face!

... All they are seeing is what I do. They are not looking at me. It's a hard thing to overcome… The women don't find me intimidating, they call me sleazy."

Over the next couple of years she starred in hundreds of porn films, most of which were instantly forgettable. Occasionally she would appear in quality products such as ‘Sex’ (1993) or ‘Hyapatia’s Obsessed’ (1993), but others such as ‘Hot Tight Asses 2’ were mediocre one-day-affairs, worth watching only for Crystal’s insatiable sex scenes.
By 1995 her output began to diminish and she eventually moved behind the camera to work as producer in a company she co-owned and operated with her husband named Wilder Productions. Although Crystal Wilder never achieved the fame of contemporaries such as Nikki Dial or Savannah, she remains one of the most popular US porn stars of the early 1990’s.